Repose
by BleedOutYourEmpathy
Summary: Fifteen years after Malchior's betrayal, Raven opens the book again. And this time, she isn't half as naive.  MalRae
1. The Wedding

Raven sipped the amber covered liquid, sucking idly on a ice cube while she tried not to think.

Tea was the only thing that could top fine malt whiskey.

She looked at the pictures on the mantle, and wondered if any of them remembered. Fifteen years to the date, since the titans had been initiated. A few years since they had all split up, still friends but needed in different areas. They teamed up on rare occasions, when their schedules permitted. When none of them had dates or obligations.

Starfire spent much more time on Tameran. And when she wasn't there, she was with Nightwing, patrolling or spending personal moments. Beastboy was affiliated as the instructor for the Titans South. He lived on site. What better leader for a gaggle of hormonal brats? And Cyborg..

Cyborg was Cyborg.

Raven felt the glass in her hand break, and cursed softly, heading to the bathroom, dropping the remnants in the wastebasket as she handled her wound. In the garbage, next to the shattered remnants of her glass and her band-aid wrapper..

And a wedding invitation.

It had been her twentieth birthday, when she had killed Trigon. When he had escaped for the first and last time. She had known it would never end, if she didn't. So Raven had gathered the strength and had done the deed. Five hours later, Cyborg had taken her to a concert. The music had been loud, near deafening. He'd shoved her into a mosh pit.

For the first time in her life Raven had embraced her now free emotions. Needless to say, a lot of people went home bruised. And after that, almost an hour of crowd surfing, of thousands of foreign hands she trusted to carry her through the night, staring up into the softly drizzling sky, ignoring the dissipating smell of fire. On the drive home, Cyborg had stated to her firmly that he had feelings for her.

Snorting, Raven lifted up the wedding invitation, reading it again.

_Your presence is hereby requested at the joining of Victor Stone and Jane Albright. _

Jinx.

After the accident, he had saved her. Raven had supported the decision. She felt like an idiot now, for not seeing it sooner. Not seeing those glances as he fixed her, as he spoon-fed her and taught her to walk again. Maybe Cyborg had a thing for helpless cases. They'd dated for seven years. And he'd left her for Jinx. Not left. That was too hard a word. He had " explained". Jinx needed him, he had loved her, back at HIVE.

And so she didn't say a word, and he went running into her arms.

Did he take her to concerts and throw her into mosh-pits too? Did he let her help him with the T-Car, when it needed an oil-change, or fuck her with the windows open when the rain kept pouring in?

She tore the invitation neatly in half, and went back to the kitchen to replenish her drink.

* * *

Raven wasn't going to go. Starfire had shown up, dragging her into the shower, doing her hair. She had even picked out a pantsuit and a small, flattering hat for the woman called Rachel Roth to wear. Everyone knew Raven didn't do dresses. When she was badgered into a vehicle, Raven was silent throughout the ordeal, only giving her friend the vaguest of questioning looks. Starfire returned her look with a brief chastisement. 

" If you do not come, Friend Raven, Victor will be most hurt. He will think you have not forgiven him, for being with Jinx."

She was silent as the cars rushed by on her left side, her forehead gently pressed against the glass. Closing her eyes for a small moment, wondering if this stabbing inside of her was jealousy or real pain.

" I haven't forgiven him, Star. Did any of you ever consider that?"

In answer, the redhead smiled. Cryptic, with those damn twinkling eyes.

" Yes you have, Friend Raven, you simply don't know it yet. "

* * *

The ceremony had been a silver and midnight blue monstrosity. Raven had sat through boring vows, nauseating declarations of love and affection, cake.. 

And now ,a reception. She would have left, but frankly the looks Star kept sending her told her she'd get a lot of grief if she didn't give a dimestore effort. So Raven sat with a free drink ( the real reason she hadn't put up more then token protest) and watched , hoping the bride would get drunk and someone would start a brawl. Of course, this didn't happen.

The bride and groom where absorbed with each other, dancing fast and slow, smiling like a couple of kids on the short-bus and laughing at their own stupid jokes. Beastboy was whirling Terra around. She still didn't know how that had happened. But their relationship was new , tenuous. The woman was still very frail from years of bodily stasis.

Raven didn't care. She glared at Terra from across the room. If the woman tried anything..

But she gave that up after the first thirty minutes and settled on getting drunk. It was fairly hard because of her background. She remembered the now dead Azar telling her God loved Drunks and Fools. And her mother, with a tiny glass of sherry, asking Raven why she always stared. And Cyborg, handing her the first glass of liquor she had ever consumed.

The music was never ending. About three hours in, she heard that song. The one they had shared at that concert from so long ago. And the pressure of a mechanical hand on her shoulder. She remembered him singing it into her ear when she had woken sobbing, knowing without a doubt that everything she remembered of Azarath was gone forever. He'd done this on purpose.

He thought that in front of all these people, she would dance with him, to this song, and would forgive him. Raven felt the first tears come and settled on the only safe emotion.

She turned around, her very old and almost rarely used Ice Queen face. And slapped Cyborg so hard he had to grip the shoulder of the man beside him to keep from falling. She would never forget that look in his eye. But she didn't wait for anything more. Instead, she took to her dark raven form.

* * *

Raven flew fifty miles, to the place she knew it would take them the longest to get to. She didn't, and couldn't withstand anyone right now. The new teenage titans didn't ask when she slammed the door, asked them in a shrill voice why they weren't out patrolling and stomped up to her little used bedroom. 

She slammed that door hard enough to put a fissure in the wall, before sliding down the doorframe until her spine curved against the unforgiving metal. Raven kicked off heels and unpinned her hat. She felt the hot tears and welcomed them. Cyborg. He had been pitying her with that hand. He had been offering her one last chance to dance with him, to a song he had given to her when she had needed it most. But she had been on his mind. He belonged to that woman, not Raven. Never her.

Large eyes blinked, wiping off the smallest traces of mascara. She had been stupid to even go. Had she expected him to look at her, to suddenly realize what he had lost? To take her into those hard, mechanical arms and tell her that she was his Rae, and that she didn't have to worry, that she wasn't a murderer and he could feel her pulse and that it didn't make her a monster to kill someone so evil..

Raven didn't know why she tore the clothes off, resting in nothing but undergarments and her own skin. She went to the window. The city was dark, unnaturally quiet. Robin had Gotham and Starfire, Beastboy had the New Titans and Cyborg had Jinx . She was herself. Afloat with nothing except a body and a purposeless need to save people. To redeem herself.

Her apartment had been too close to the ceremony, and Raven wished it hadn't been. Cyborg had built this tower. She could almost feel his creativity in every inch of her own room. Curling to her bed, Raven didn't move. She used her powers instead, and let them ravage every possession she had. Books tore themselves in halves, the window shattered, the bed frame shook. And she just laid there. After a few hours, silence reigned instead of shattering glass and tearing papyrus.

She stood on wobbling legs. Raven tripped unceremoniously over a wooden box, on her way to the bathroom. The Titans would be asleep by now, and she had a robe. Stubbing her ankles and feeling a soft trickle of blood, she snarled, until she saw the carvings.

Her own hellish Jack in the Box. Of course, it would be today of all days that she would see it. Almost fifteen years since Malchior had tried to kill them all. Since the paper man had seduced her into almost killing her friends via dragon-fire. Since those ice-blue eyes had spoken to her, understood her. Raven suffered a raw laugh at that. Would he even recognize her now? With the long hair, the curvier body? Yes. But he would be disappointed. She hadn't lived up to his expectations, most likely.

But at least he had broken her heart right off the bat. Cyborg had drawn it out.

She took the wooden trunk and set it on hr bedspread. The bathroom could wait. She traced the runes with a small , shaking hand. Cyborg had done the same thing to her that she had done to Malchior. Shoved her into a box and forgotten she had existed. She undid the lock with little thought. He couldn't escape the book. The box was of no consequence.

Setting the dangerous tome on the spread, she left to clean off her face. To prove to herself it didn't matter, that the thick book wasn't going anywhere. And when she returned, padding down the halls with bare feet, it was still laying innocently against the plush down comforter. Raven held it against her chest. She remembered what that first love felt like. Remembered how cruel she had been to her friends.

Malchior had offered her the same thing Cyborg had. Companionship and understanding. But neither of them had been able to deliver. Neither had been true to her, had really wanted anything like love. Raven didn't know why she bothered. At least when she hadn't been able to show her emotions, people had stayed away. Now, every time she felt the experience was still so new, and her face gave her away.

She didn't want them to know how she felt, how desperate she was for human contact. So instead the short, curvy woman sat in her undergarments on her bed and clutched a silent, closed book for a few hours, until she fell asleep. She remembered nights with it underneath her covers with her, like a teddy bear. Raven found that it still had the same appeal. The inherent warmth of the living tome radiated into her skin, and soon, she drifted off, her eyes raw from crying and her shins still bleeding from running into the wooden chest. But she didn't feel any of it. And her dreams were safe, and restful Raven would never see those two blue eyes open on the cover of the book, study the woman; who looked so much different from the girl but still the same. Malchior saw an opportunity. God forbid he pass that up.

* * *

The next morning Raven woke, someone pounding a fist on her door. She had. a splitting headache from drinking, and realized she still had the damn book. Stumbling out of bed, she locked it into the chest again and kicked it until it skidded into the wall. And then, she approached her door and unlocked it. Raven would much rather get this meeting over and done. The fact that they hadn't overridden the door commands was enough to suggest they weren't as angry as she had originally thought. Her footsteps were quick, lest they decide to change their minds. 

Raven needed a confrontation, she just wished they had waited until she was completely awake and sober. The door opened after she unlocked it, and instead of the Spanish inquisition, it was Dick Grayson, clad in civilian clothes and wearing sunglasses. His hands were in his pockets, and when he saw her he abruptly covered his eyes with a visible wince.

" Shit Raven, at least get dressed before you answer the door. "

He was careful not to uncover his eyes until she had slipped her bathrobe on, and she knew an angry Starfire was nothing to sneeze at. She was still a bit irritated though. How collected had he expected her to be? It was.. Eleven in the morning. Her schedule had been cleared for today in preparation for a monstrous hangover. She was glad for that now. Her patients didn't like to be kept waiting. She put on a small pair of black house-shoes and they retreated to the kitchen, the only place safe from the teenage miscreants. They were supposed to be training today.

After putting some water to boil and taking a seat, she looked Dick straight in the eye. He was sizing up the damage, and she would be damned if everyone would think she was some mentally frayed super-heroine who was holding a grudge at being scorned. Even if part of it was true. Instead of speaking, he waited for her.

" Why'd they send the least talkative person in the group to intervene with the other recluse? It seems counter-productive."

He didn't speak again, still just looking, and she hated that she couldn't see what his eyes were looking at with those damned glasses on. Her foot started tapping. He flinched at the noise, one of his many slight irritations, and they sat there for five minutes. She was tense and angry, he was withdrawn and observant. Just like old times.

Teasing the grain of the table with steady fingers, he kept his eyes firmly planted on the table.

" We're all worried Raven. You haven't been yourself lately. And what you did yesterday was crossing the line. If you had a problem with Victor you could have told us, and we wouldn't have made you come. "

She blinked , once.

" Were you aware your meddling girlfriend commandeered me into coming and that I had relatively no choice in the matter? Or did that slip everyone's mind, because of course when he openly begged me for an apology and I didn't give it I'm the horrible one. Not him, for leaving me for some small-time pink-haired criminal that only reformed because she wasn't fast enough for thieving anymore, after he fixed her up. "

Her voice had picked up a bit too much at the end, and Raven strove to control herself. Why was she yelling a Robin? He'd never done anything to her, besides take everyone else's side one or two times too often. He almost looked regretful.

" Look, Star had good intentions , But you're the one who hit the guy on his wedding day Raven. It's not like he acted like it bothered him, and Jinx didn't mind, but you could have been the bigger person and let it go without a fuss. As it is ; you were drinking like a fish. "

Raven flinched at the thrown accusation. So that's what they were mad about. Not Cyborg, but the drinking. Like it was any of their business how many martinis she had. The muscles tensed beneath her dove gray bathrobe, and Robin knew he'd been too honest.

" I'm not an alcoholic, my drinking doesn't affect my work, and therefore it's none of your damn business, Boy Wonder. I was at the wedding of the man I loved, who left me for another woman, did all of you lobotomized cretins think I was going to sit there, smile like Miss America, and be giddy? "

When she got up, the chair squealed as she went to handle the boiling water. Idly, Rachel noticed her hands were shaking. Clenching them on the white stovetop, she strived for calm. A state of mind she hadn't wanted to feel since her father's death ten years ago. After that, Raven had embraced emotion and strove to feel as much of it as she possibly could. But now, at thirty, she wondered if she ever should have. Maybe she would have been better off if she had turned Cyborg down that night, retreated to her room and meditated for no reason at all.

The hesitant grip on her shoulder was enough to tell her she had been crying for at least three minutes. Horrified at the sound of the ripping, almost hysteric sobs, Robin turned her around, pulling her to his chest and rubbing her stiff spine while she struggled with whatever was tearing her apart. Cyborg had been with Jinx for three years, and Raven had never gotten over it? Of course not. And none of them had realized her stoic acceptance and the way she only spoke to Victor when he asked a deliberately aimed question was her way of hating him. Robin felt like an idiot. Raven was his responsibility, they were a team, even if they were estranged.

And more then duty, she was a friend. They'd spent so much time being happy for Victor, none of them had even noticed how badly she was hurting. Well; they knew she wasn't very happy with him, but they hadn't known she was so close to the breaking point. So he tried not to be uncomfortable and ran a hand down her back. Quiet, just holding and hoping soon she would be alright.

When her sobs died off, She could barely stand. She hated this weakness, what she was letting Robin see. He was good at keeping secrets though. He wouldn't spread around her emotional breakdowns. Instead, he stopped rubbing her back and handed her a tissue from the counter, which she accepted without speaking. Robin winced when he knew she wasn't looking. His shoulder was soaking, and he still had to go to his day job.

Oh well. Some things were worth it, and she'd needed a friend.

" I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

He saw the way she wrapped one arm around her midsection, clutching like someone was going to kick her while she was down. He felt the need to express his opinion. Hopefully she'd understand what he meant by it.

" Raven.. Cyborg and Jinx are in love. They belong together. You two had something, but he never looked at you the way he looks at her. I think you deserve better. You deserve someone who can feel that way for you. So I'm not sorry Cyborg quit on you. But I am sorry it's been so hard. I'll see you in a few days. Bruce needs another leg surgery and I promised.. Well- you know. "

She nodded. He kissed her on the cheek before heading out. Count on Dick to always be blunt and honest.

* * *

Returning to her rooms ( after a shower and a rather long reflection) she unlocked the chest again, retrieving Malchior's book. She wasn't stupid enough to want to see him again. Not for romantic reasons. But talking to him wouldn't hurt. He couldn't affect her the same way. She was older, more mature. And to be honest, she wanted someone to talk to. About betrayal. Maybe he could explain it to her. After all, if he made her angry she'd lock him away and forget the entire thing. 

She didn't care about the bathrobe and the soaking hair. She opened the cover and began to read. The book fell from her hands of it's own accord, and the paper began to reassemble.

And for the first time since she was sixteen, she saw those eyes again. And was startled to think she may have been missing them.

AN: I needed a bit of spice, but this will be MalRae. Raven's thirty, she met Malchior when she was sixteen, she killed Trigon at twenty and dated Cyborg until she was twenty-seven.


	2. The Pact

AN: Empathy here. This chapter is dedicated to all the great reviews and constructive criticism. All the errors in the first chapter should be fixed. And someone asked about Raven's personal description. She's a bit more curvy then in the show, about an inch taller, but fuller figured. Basically, larger hips and breasts. Coke bottle, all the way . This chapter was inspired by watermelon and Paralyzer, by Finger Eleven. I consider it Malchior and Raven's song. Less in lyric then in the tone of the song. That and Glycerine by Bush. Why? No clue again. I just get feelings about these things.

This chapter might seem disjointed and have a few points that counteract each other. It's done on purpose, as you will see in later chapters. Enjoy the show.

Malchior knew it had been years. Years in that black nothing, being so coherent there, the dragon and himself entwined, one being. Nobody would ever understand that. He could hear the world outside his tome, but he could not participate. His ears could register Raven, Meditation, fighting, silent contemplation.. He had experienced her life on audio. The story was almost better then his own, even the end, with Trigon, when she had done the amazing and unthinkable.

He had been paralyzed with fear for the young girl, hoping but not believing she could defeat someone like her father, who made even he tremble. But she had. Raven had become a killer in the space of a day, and then she had been able to feel. The next few years had been interesting. He had known her, heard the way she tested the waters of this unknown territory. Every emotion she felt was intense, more so then in other people. And when she found romance, he had almost been jealous.

The mechanical one had treated her decently, had taken care of Raven. But he never encouraged her powers. He had taken care of her, at the price of her strength, and Raven hadn't even seen it, being too absorbed in love, and the physical aspects thereof. And Oh, how he had hated it. Their.. Lovemaking. The noise had been impossible to escape, and the rage of his other side welled in him.

How dare she do such things within earshot of him, as if he was nothing but a frivolous fairy tale? As if she didn't know every second was agony,. Every soft cry from her lips wasn't some abysmal betrayal of every confidence they had shared? She had been his little raven, smooth and pale and full of secrets. And now he couldn't even recognize her. Her toned, lighter voice, the way she would hum an off key tune when dressing.

The little chit had conveniently forgotten everything he had taught her; everything. She was content to make her own methods. After she had shoved him back into this book. After she had ruined all their plans, one misspoken syllable, and he had been joined to the dragon. She had bound the both of them together, and the dragon was stronger then. Had ruined everything, because Malchior had been angry with her, and that was all the opening Rorek had needed to destroy her.

But she had come back, older and broken . Malchior had stared at her, that night. She'd been scantly clad, as if she had come home from a particularly bad fight. But he could see, from his resting place against her chest. The beautiful clothing scattered with everything else. Broken and decimated, the layer of dust on most of the things didn't surprise him. Three years prior, she had left this place. Left him to the darkness. Losing the sound of Raven ( of any living thing) had driven him mad for a time.

But there she was, face perfectly calm and soft in dreaming, clutching him like she hadn't in a very long time. He hoped she wasn't as complacent with him as she was before. She was supposed to learn a lesson from that. But she hadn't whispered anything in her sleep; so he had no idea what this little spat was about. Why she would retrieve him from the case after so long in darkness. Did Raven long for his false empathy?

Not exactly false.. perhaps self-serving. Teaching her the magic had been his pleasure. Knowledge was more sacred to dragons then any other species. And Raven was a perfect vessel for continuing the flow. It was the emotional aspect that bothered Malchior more then even he understood. No matter how she had always contained herself, those feelings filtered out, affecting everyone around her. Feeling things like affection was difficult for him. Not because he didn't want to get attached. Because he knew that to give into such things was to covet destruction.

His wife had proven that long ago.

But he stopped his internal struggling, feeling a weight lifting, light shine into the darkness of his tome. Unable to contain himself, he left out, into a paper form. Making sure the scarf came with him, Malchior knelt, waiting for the last of his attributes to form. Then, he finally opened his eyes, staring up into her own. Azure met a color that could most closely be described as a hypothermic lips. Blue but not blue. White, but not white.

They stared, for a few moments. An impasse neither of them was strong enough to break yet. She was fuller, lush and obviously older, in the attitude and the eyes instead of her face. He was the exact same, and always would be, unless he returned to the real world. Something ached in his heart. How many decades? How long would he be a slave to time and the book?

Raven opened her mouth, but nothing came. He knelt at her feet like a knight before slowly unfolding, walking , his back to her. The paper rose lay on a shelf, and he was just tall enough to see it gathering dust, along with a rather old pendant he knew would induce psychic trances. He was just another shelved toy; one she had tired of after it gave her a bit of trouble.

He wasn't the one to speak first, to his surprise. The lady of the hour opened her mouth, closed it.. And finally settled on questions. Because she didn't beat around the bush and Raven wouldn't lie and say she missed him when he had ruined everything so long ago. She had worn white and that had been destroyed by him. Only twice after that had she deigned to bear that color. No more. Raven never had the heard to tell anyone it was because the color reminded her of Malchior's hair. There was no purity in such things.

" Your eyes are blue instead of white. And your body has colors. Don't tell me my bindings aren't as strong as Rorek's were."

When he waited to answer, she didn't get impatient. Instead, she stood and went to her dresser, removing the clothes for the day. She always made sure to have spare things laying about. Even if she only visited the Tower sparingly, Raven had been stranded enough to know your personal possessions couldn't have one safe place. Because you were usually left with a big steaming pile of nothing if you were caught by an enemy.

Malchior was impressed with her placid faces. He honestly knew something was seriously wrong with Raven. Why else would she have opened a book she knew had a bound dragon-man inside of it, ready to wreak havoc the minute she was stupid enough to let him?

" You wouldn't believe me if I told you, so what is the point of an answer? And; as we are on the point of questions, where have you been the last three years? Surely you did not fly solo."

He circled her, almost angered at the fact that she didn't react, no matter how slowly he walked. Obviously her father and some villain or another had lowered her tolerance for fear. Hell did that to a person. Malchior wondered if he would prefer it to the book. Or if it was like the books said or worse. He made a mental note to research that, if she wasn't locked up again.

" Oh, so you could hear. I hoped you couldn't, but it doesn't matter. Not like listening to me meditate helped you get past those anger issues. I was living by myself. I shouldn't have left your book here though. Some idiot might have come snooping and I would have had to seal you a second time. "

Malchior wondered if slapping her would get him banished. Emphatic yes. And it wouldn't do anything but tear one of his pages. And possibly piss her off, which wouldn't help his freedom case. Instead, Malchior took a seat on her bed. Finger underneath his chin, he offered her a thoughtful smile. Raven almost looked disgusted for a moment. Her dark bedspread didn't even wrinkle beneath the slight weight of his paper.

" Ah. And it had nothing to do with getting more privacy to be with the robot, would it? Yes, I heard that too. My little dove has grown up. I would say I was proud, but frankly I don't prefer lies if at all possible. You had much potential Raven, and you have been squandering it."

She flicked her wrist at him, dismissing him like a fly on the hand of a debutante. A nuisance Raven let live because on occasions it was amusing. His eyes lost their hue and became white, for a single moment. But Raven did not see, and for that he was grateful. Instead, she did something he hadn't expected. It was incredibly alluring, but also insanely out of character.

Raven was getting nude. In front of Malchior. In her room, with the door bolted.

She started slipping on her clothing and pretended to finally notice his existence. The act stung him, even though he knew it was false. Beautiful women did not toy with him. Not before he became the paper man. And now, Raven ; who had been willing to die for him on one occasion.. Was completely uninterested.

" Oh; did you say something? All I heard was a slimy snake flopping around my room for a few minutes. But that's gone now. And before you get around to asking; I didn't let you out because I think I can talk to you. Or because your some kind of replacement for real human contact. I'm thirty, not sixteen. "

She finished buttoning her pale blue blouse and zipped up her black slacks. Raven looked.. Sophisticated. Clean cut and ready to be a scholar or whatever duties the people of this future took upon themselves. And she wasn't lying. But now Malchior was not only irritated; but curious.

" Then why did you summon me? If I may ask, that is. "

He wasn't rising to her bait, which proved to Raven that he at least had tact. Apparently it was only after he seduced the maiden that he turned into the monster. She would just have to remember that and not be interested. When the time came. Right now Malchior was simply a means to an end.

" I want you to teach me more of your magic."

Malchior honestly looked surprised, but wiped the look off of his face for something a bit less comical. Let Raven believe what she wanted about him. He wouldn't teach her anything that she would exploit him with later.

" And what is my motivation?"

Raven smiled at that, a cynical, cold smile. Her body tensed as she looked at Malchior, sizing him up. He would teach her, for what she offered. He was too desperate to refuse. Malchior had one weakness, one large flaw. His imprisonment was eating slowly at the edges of his sanity.

" Freedom. Or better yet, if you don't teach me, I'll take that book and conveniently take it to the Temple of Hulavi on the planet Juvian, dimension of Nox. I hear their particularly hateful to your kind."

Malchir flinched. She did know of them then. But why wouldn't she have disposed of him sooner? Perhaps Raven wasn't as foolish as he had thought. Her eyes caught him, just before he asked another question.

" Tell me why. Why you want to learn. "

She raised an eyebrow. The way wouldn't matter to him. But if it got him to agree without much persuasion on Raven's part, she would be honest and tell him.

" I want to bring someone back form the dead, to kill someone else. And you will teach me; everything you know. Understand?"

Her hand was extended, a show of a bargain. Malchior weighed his options. None of them were wonderful. So he accepted her hand in his own paper one. Her skin felt amazing. But that was because he hadn't touched anything in fifteen years.

" Fine. But if you do not free me, I will make sure you regret it. Thoroughly."

The knock at her door stunned her for a moment. Until she crossed the room in three strides, shut his book, and Malchior was once again in the dark. Taking a deep breath and thanking god someone had the propriety to knock before entering, Raven opened her door. Taking a look, she slammed it. Five seconds later, there was no door.

And a man Cyborgs size, only without the metal and with red hair and blue eyes, stood there, smiling. A juggernaut in tailored black slacks. His facial hair was groomed well, and his hair was longer in the back, shaggy but not in a ponytail. He looked like a friendly lion.

And Raven hated him, with an intense passion.

" Sledge, you may lead Titans East. But that doesn't explain why you are here, annoying me, when your ignorant, rusticated, outdated scottish accent could be screaming drills at unsuspecting teenagers. I'll assume it's your asinine pursuit for my hand, which will not be yours, now or ever. Now please leave. Preferably before I hide your body in a sewer drain and pretend the smell is just a dead skunk. "

He stood for a moment. Before bursting into guffaws of laughter. His large form shook so hard he was wiping tears from his eyes.

" Lord woman, are you pretty when riled. My druthers would be being here to court you, but sadly it's just a note from the boy upstairs. Says your main patrol for the next week, Starfire and Robin are on a cover mission after Mallah. Beastboy and Terra are handling the Titans and the Titans South. North will be mine too, since Spare Parts and Pinky are out for the month on honeymoon. "

He saw how she flinched and raised a hand, disheveling her hair and avoiding a gray bolt of furious energy. It was gray and transparent since her father's defeat. Or so the others had told him.

" An dun worry lovely, that slap was beautiful. I think nobody else saw you put some of your powers into it. But I'll be goin."

Turning around to leave, he whipped around fast enough to startle Raven, planting a soft kiss to the side of her mouth that made her spine tingle with awareness.

* * *

When the large superhero swam back to shore form the deepest part of the Bay, he was laughing. She really was a spitfire. 


End file.
